{{Short description|Type of literary work}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} A '''drawing room play''' is a type of play, developed during the Victorian period in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. They set upper and middle-class characters confronting a social problem of the time with a comedic twist.<ref name=Scott_Kastan>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlMUSz-hiuEC&dq=%22drawing+room+play%22&pg=PA1|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature|author=David Scott Kastan|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|page=1|isbn=978-0-19-516921-8 }}</ref> The play is formed from a blend of three parts: part well-made play, part society drama, part comedy of manners.<ref name=NYT/> Exponents of this style include Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Wing Pinero, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Edward Martyn and George Moore.<ref name=Scott_Kastan/>
The name ''drawing room play'' has its origins in the upper and middle classes of Victorian society, who with time on their hands, enacted amateur plays for the pleasure of their families in the drawing room.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xxfiAgAAQBAJ|title=Y Tu Mewn i Gartrefi Cymru / Inside Welsh Homes|author=Rachael Barnwell, Richard Suggett|date=2014|isbn=9781871184501|publisher=RCAHMW|page=101}}</ref>
The style was later revisited by playwrights such as Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley; with in turn John Osborne and the Angry young men, in reaction to the revival, creating kitchen sink dramas.<ref name=Auger>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pweHrSjCQrgC&dq=%22drawing+room+play%22&pg=PA87|title=The Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory|author=Peter Auger|date=2010|isbn=9780857286703|publisher=Anthem Press|page=87}}</ref>
==Examples== *''Dying for Love'' by John Maddison Morton<ref name=Guide>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dk253oWY3LkC&dq=%22drawing+room+play%22&pg=PA20|title=Guide to Selecting Plays Or, Managers' Companion.|author=Wentworth Hogg|date=1881|publisher=S. French|page=20}}</ref> *''Orange Blossoms'' by J. P. Wooler<ref name=Guide/> *''Romantic Attachment'' by Arthur Wood<ref name=Guide/> *''Match Making'' by John Poole<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dk253oWY3LkC&dq=%22drawing+room+play%22&pg=PA20|title=Guide to Selecting Plays Or, Managers' Companion.|author=Wentworth Hogg|date=1881|publisher=S. French|page=26}}</ref> * ''The Gay Lord Quex'' by Arthur Wing Pinero<ref name=NYT/> *''Lady Frederick'' by W. Somerset Maugham<ref name=NYT/> * Oscar Wilde's ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' is one of the most widely known examples of the drawing room play. His other plays in this style are ''Lady Windermere's Fan'', ''A Woman of No Importance'' and ''An Ideal Husband''. *''Aren't We All?'' by Frederick Lonsdale<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/28/theater/whatever-happened-to-drawing-room-comedy.html|title=WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DRAWING-ROOM COMEDY?|newspaper=New York Times|date=28 April 1985}}</ref> *''Relative Values'' by Noël Coward<ref name=NYT/> *''An Inspector Calls'' by J. B. Priestley<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/58816/an-inspector-calls-a-riveting-drawing-room-play|title=An Inspector Calls: a riveting drawing room play|magazine=New Age|date=14 December 2018}}</ref> *''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.broadstreetreview.com/reviews/walnut-street-theatre-presents-edward-albees-whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf|title=The last word on the drawing-room play Walnut Street Theatre presents Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?|magazine=Broad Street Review|date=22 January 2024}}</ref>
==See also== * Chamber play * Comedy of manners * Silver fork literature
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Stage terminology Category:Victorian culture